We Could Be Anywhere
by Jazminadra
Summary: Two girls on the road after high school, trying to find direction for their lives. Add a good looking hitchhiker. Some adventurous spirit. Some danger. That's what perfect /disastrous  road trips are made of. All Human. E/B
1. Who knows where we'll be tomorrow

**Hi everyone! Here's the first chapter of my new story, hope you like it. And as always any feedback is greatly appreciated :) I try to update once in a week, at least in the beginning.  
>In this one, all the chapter names are from songs. Can you guess where this one's from? (And no googling, guys! ;))<strong>

**Thanks to Project Team Beta for betaing and _MidnightTrain_ for making this awesome banner for me: **http:/i(dot)imgur(dot)com/DYf4m(dot)png****

****Disclaimer: Stephenie Mayer still owns the characters, I'm just babysitting them for a while and taking them on an awesome road trip.  
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><p><strong>We Could Be Anywhere<strong>

1 – Who knows where we'll be tomorrow

"I can't fucking take this anymore!" I yelled at the empty living room. "Aaargh!"

There was no response. Well, I hadn't expected it, that was kind of the point why I had yelled in the first place.

I sat down on the couch with a sigh. There was a reason for my crappy mood, and that was called the future. It was called university, or more specifically it was called _no university, _because during my senior year in high school I had been such a crappy student that I barely passed high school.

I fought back tears for a while and tried to decide what to do. Even though I was alone in the house I could have just as well cried but I was too proud for that. I picked up my cell from the floor where I had thrown it and dialed a number.

"What's up, baby?" Laurent answered almost immediately, bringing a smile to my face with his flirtatious greeting. He called just about everyone he knew 'baby' or 'darling'.

"I have a question for you," I said, the smile fading from my face when I remembered the reason why I was calling him.

"Bring it on," Laurent said, and I heard him put me on speakerphone and type something on his keyboard as he spoke.

"What would you do if you were an eighteen-year-old girl with no money and no job, who just found out that she wasn't accepted into any of the universities she applied to?" I asked dryly.

"Oh darling, I'm so sorry," Laurent answered, and I could hear that he had stopped typing.

"Yeah, me too," I said. Not that I had particularly looked forward to college; I didn't even know what I wanted to be when I grew up; I was just looking forward to getting out of here.

"I have an answer to your question," Laurent said, and I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was smiling on the other end of the phone. "I would go visit my awesome godfather in California."

I chuckled. "And then what? Spend the rest of my life lying on a beach, drinking mojitos, and hooking up with hot rock stars you'd introduce me to?"

"Sounds like a plan." Laurent laughed.

"I'm serious!" I exclaimed, but was grateful that Laurent had already managed to cheer me up a bit.

"I was serious, too. Honestly, it looks like you need a timeout. You know you're always welcome here. And you can bring that friend of yours, Alice, with you."

"You're right; I need a timeout. But I don't think I'm coming to California. And besides, Mom would want to come with me – her summer vacation is just starting – and that wouldn't exactly be a timeout."

"Is my dear sister getting on your nerves?" Laurent chuckled.

I sighed. Mom and Laurent were so different that it was hard to believe that they were brought up by the same parents. Somehow they still got along well and Mom had been talking about visiting Laurent soon.

"She's already mad because of my bad grades. I can't even imagine what she will say when she hears about this university thing," I said.

"You haven't told her yet?"

I shook my head and then remembered that Laurent couldn't see it. "No, I just found out. After spending the whole day opening rejection letters."

"Oh, poor thing," Lauren said, sounding like he really was sorry. "I'm giving you a mental hug. You'll be alright."

"So, do you have any other suggestions?" I asked. "I'm going to need a plan before Mom gets back from work or she's going to eat me alive."

"Run away?" Laurent suggested.

I couldn't help laughing, even though the day had been pretty crappy. "You would be fired from your godfather duties if my dear mother could hear your advice."

"Well, it's good that I'm not going to agree to be fired then.."

"Gross, you're being soppy today," I said, but secretly felt a strong affection for my godfather who had been there for me for as long as I remembered. "Any other suggestions?"

"Well, I don't know. Take a vacation. Get a job. Go on a road trip. Get yourself a rich man," Laurent said.

"Nice," I said.

"Come on, don't be picky. How many options do you want me to come up with?"

"I'll have to think about it. I'll let you know what I decide," I said.

"Honestly, I wish you would come see your old godfather," Laurent said.

"Hah, like anyone would ever use the word 'old' to describe you."

Laurent chuckled at the other end of the phone. "Okay, honey, I'd love to chat but I've got a meeting. If I don't run, I'm going to be late. Got some big rock stars to please."

"Fine. Go then, since you're such a big, important manager," I said, pretending to be offended, but I couldn't hide the smile from my voice.

"You know how they are; we had to make the conference room bigger so their egos fit through the door."

I chuckled. "If you want, call me later, though. If I'm not here, you can use my secretary as your therapist."

"Thanks," I said, rolling my eyes. "Now go, before some big egos get tired of waiting for you."

I hung up the phone and shook my head. My godfather always had a way of cheering me up. He and my best friend Alice were basically the only people in the world who always knew how to do that. I wandered into the kitchen and picked up an apple from the basket. It was a beautiful June afternoon; the sun was shining into the kitchen and warming me up a bit.

"My life is a mess," I muttered to myself, thinking about the options Laurent had suggested. Getting a rich man was not an option in Forks. There weren't any, and besides, I didn't have the looks for that nor the patience to learn how to use makeup. I chuckled at myself, looking down at my white tank top, worn out jean shorts, and dirty fingernails, trying to imagine myself as a fine lady, hanging from some Suit's arm.

I shook my head and bit the apple.

A few hours later I pushed the front door shut with a sigh of relief and began to walk towards Alice's house. Alice lived about a fifteen minute walk away from my house. That was good, since I didn't have a car.

I had come up with a plan to save my life. My parents were due to come home from work within an hour, so I had just left my rejection letters on the kitchen table, pretended to forget my cell at home, and evacuated to Alice's place. By the time I got back they were hopefully recovered from the first shock.

"Hi, Bella," Alice's mom greeted me as she opened the door. She was the perfect image of the stereotypical mother: a bit round and bright, wearing an apron, and had some flour on her cheek. "Alice is upstairs."

I walked upstairs to Alice's room and collapsed on her bed. "I'm screwed."

"Hello to you, too," Alice said, rolling her eyes and shutting down her laptop.

"I didn't get into university. Not a single one of them. How worthless can a person be?" I asked.

"Oh no," Alice said, and came to sit on her bed too. "I'm so sorry, but it's not the end of the world. I don't even want to go to university."

"Yes, because you want to be _an artist_," I said, stretching the last word.

Alice grinned. "Hey, it's not my fault if the bohemian lifestyle is too demanding for some people," she said. "No need to be bitter."

I shook my head, smiling. We were only joking, but I knew that it was her dream to someday make a living from her art. And I couldn't see why she wouldn't; she was an amazing painter.

"So, have you already decided where you're going to go?" I asked, trying to hide the sadness in my voice. I should be happy for my best friend, and I was. I was just thinking how much more fun it would have been if we were going to university together.

"Honestly, I don't think I am," Alice said, looking thoughtful.

"You don't know if you've decided?"

"No. I don't think I'm going. At least not yet. I'm thinking about taking a gap year," Alice said. "And what would I even do there now if you're not going?"

I raised my eyes to look at her. "Are you serious? What would your mom say?"

Alice shrugged. "She'll get over it."

"You're amazing."

"I know," Alice laughed. "But seriously, I'm not the bookworm type. I learn from living, just like you. These grades and universities and degrees don't mean anything, if you think about it. Life's too short for that."

I didn't answer anything to that. In a way, Alice was absolutely right about learning from living. It was just that only a few people would actually live by that ideology, and I wasn't sure if I could be one of them. Unlike Alice, I wouldn't mind having a job and a salary some day

"So, what are we doing, then?" Alice asked, waking me from my thoughts.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, we have a year to spend, what are we going to do?" Alice said. "Something crazy: like moving to Australia or taking up a charity job from Africa?"

I laughed. "What would we do in Australia?"

"Ride kangaroos?" Alice suggested.

"Good plan," I said. "You're right though; I wouldn't mind taking off for a while. Maybe like a week or two."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Are you crazy? A week? That's not nearly enough time to discover yourself, find a direction for your life, and have an amazing, hot, summer romance."

"You're a hopeless romantic," I pointed out.

"And proud of it," Alice added. "So it's settled then. We're going on a trip."

"It's not settled! We haven't even decided where we're going," I said.

"Do we have to?" Alice asked.

"Um, yeah. That would be kind of practical."

Alice jumped up off the bed and started walking around the room. I could see she was excited. "Who cares about 'practical'?" Alice said. "I say we just take the car and drive."

"A road trip," I muttered.

"What did you say?"

"Like a road trip. That was one of Laurent's suggestions," I said.

"Yeah, see, even your honorable godfather approves," Alice said.

I shook my head. "Even a blind monkey wouldn't mistake Laurent as honorable," I said.

Alice snorted and sat down on her desk. "Whatever. So, we're going on a road trip?"

"I don't know. I have to think about it. I can't just suddenly decide to go on some road trip."

"Why not? I just did." Alice shrugged.

"You are you so that doesn't count," I said.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Alice muttered.

After that we didn't talk much more about the road trip. Alice insisted that there wasn't anything to think about, but I disagreed. First, I would have to fight with my parents, and then try to make them let me go for a week or two. I had no idea how that was going to happen.

I hung out at Alice's place for a couple more hours, ate the delicious lasagna her mother had made, and only then did I gather the courage to go back home.

"I'm home," I yelled from the front door, trying to keep my voice casual.

"Where were you?" Mom appeared in the kitchen doorway, her face emotionless and unreadable. Oh no – that was never a good sign.

"I was at Alice's place. I forgot my phone at home."

"Yes, I noticed that," she said, and her voice was toxic.

Dad appeared behind Mom and put a calming hand on her shoulder. "So, your mom and I need to talk with you."

"About what?" I asked, deciding to play innocent as long as I could.

"I think you well know what about," Mom hissed.

"Let's go to the kitchen and sit down," Dad said. I knew he sensed a storm coming and was trying to keep everything in control. That's the way it always was, Dad balancing between me and Mom whenever we had a row.

We all sat down at the table – me on the one side, the two of them on the other. I felt like I was being interrogated.

"We saw the letters," Mom said and nodded towards the rejection letters that lay on the table like they were some aggravating evidence of my guilty – which I guess they were. "So, did you actually get into a university _at all_?"

I shook my head.

Mom was silent for a moment and then it started. "What is wrong with you, Bella? Haven't I told you, time after time, how important education is? How is it possible that you didn't get into a single one? I told you! I warned you that you can't just keep going out with your friends during your _senior year_."

"I know, Mom," I snapped back at her as a response. "Do you think I'm not disappointed? I know I should have studied harder, but well, there's nothing I can do about that now."

"Well, you don't look disappointed!" Mom yelled, smacking her palm on the table so hard that it made me jump. "Actually, you don't look like you care. If you did, maybe you would have done something about it when you had the chance."

"It's none of your business, anyway," I shouted, using the I-am-an-adult-now –card. "It's my life, and it's my own fucking choice what I do with it. It's none of your business if I spend every damn evening drinking with my friends and never get a job in my life."

"Oh, really? So, that's your plan, then," Mom said sarcastically. "To keep living in our house on the money your father and I earn, thinking that you don't have to do absolutely anything. How can you be so irresponsible and immature?"

"So, that's what this is about, then?" I said. I knew that I wasn't exactly playing fair, but I didn't care. "You want me to move out – fine then. So, do I get any time to find my own place or are you just going to - "

"Of course, we don't want you to move out," Dad interrupted. Up until now, Dad had stared at the table, looking uneasy. He didn't like fighting. "It's not about that. As your parents, we are just worried about your future. Of course, we want you to get a good education and have a career."

"That's exactly the problem," I said. "It's all about careers and education and jobs and money. There's more to me than my fucking future career. You're just too invested in grades and careers and jobs to see that."

I knew that I hurt them, speaking like that, but they had hurt me too. It's like they never even cared about me. It was all about my future and my grades. That's all they every cared about, at least Mom, All she wanted was to make me some kind of example child that she could brag about to all the relatives. Well, that wasn't working.

"That's not true, and you know it!" Mom yelled. "Now stop being so arrogant, so we can think this through."

"First, I am not being arrogant. Second, we are not going to think anything through. It's my life, and I'll make my own decisions," I said, standing up so fast that the chair fell over.

"You are not going anywhere," Mom snapped.

"Oh, yeah? How are you going to stop me?" I asked. I had just about had enough.

Mom shouted something after me, but I didn't listen anymore. I was already on my way to my room.

I lay on the bed and closed my eyes for a moment. Somehow, I felt trapped like it was just a bit hard to breathe. Before school had ended, the future had just been something pretty scary but still distant. Now, it was real, and I didn't have any idea what I would do.

Maybe, Alice was right. Maybe having a clever plan – college, job, career, family and so on – wasn't always the best option. Maybe for a moment I should just concentrate on living.

I picked up my phone and texted Alice. I wasn't entirely sure if I had done it because I was mad at my mom or that I wanted to get away and do something different for a change.

_The road trip is so on. When are we leaving?_


	2. My heart is like an open highway

**A/N: Hey, guys, here's the second chap. Thank you for reviewing/putting on your favorite/alerts lists! Hope you enjoy! :)**

2 – My heart is like an open highway

I was relieved when I woke up the next day only after Mom had left for work. I wandered into the bathroom and brushed my teeth and then pulled on a blue t-shirt and a pair of shorts. The day was just as beautiful as yesterday had been, the sun rising to the cloudless sky, so unfamiliar to the cloudy and rainy Forks. Better enjoy it while it lasts, I thought as I carried my cereal bowl outside to the terrace. I knew that soon it would be all rainy and cloudy again.

"Hey, Bella!" I heard someone call when I was finishing my cereal, and when I turned my head I saw Alice walking towards me with our friend, Angela.

"Hi," I said, setting the bowl on the table beside me. "What are you doing here?"

"Alice said she wanted to plan your road trip and I wanted to see you two. Hang out for a while, if we're not going to see each other for a while," Angela said. "Great thing, by the way. I'm so jealous of you."

"You could come with us," Alice suggested, sitting on the terrace and leaning against the wall.

Angela shook her head. "Not going to happen. I'm stuck here for the whole summer, working at that dumb supermarket. But oh well, what can I do, I need to earn some money before college."

"And at least you've got Ben to entertain you," Alice said.

"Gosh, I don't want to know how he's entertaining her," I muttered. Alice grinned and Angela punched me on the arm.

I went inside to pick up a map and then came back out. "Here, we can plan our route," I said spreading the map in front of us.

"Boring," said Alice who had laid down on the wooden terrace and closed her eyes. "I thought that was the whole point of the trip, to not plan. Just go where the road takes us."

"We're not even going to plan our route?" I looked at Alice, amazed. We had been friends all though high school, but still her daringness sometimes amazed me.

"Nope. I'd say we just head south and decide where we're going on the way."

"When are we leaving, by the way?" I asked.

"I don't know – tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? Are you crazy?" We couldn't possibly leave that soon.

"Nope," Alice answered simply.

"Tell her that she's crazy," I said to Angela.

She just grinned at me. "I think it's actually a good idea. It's great that you're being so spontaneous about this. You know, if I didn't have Ben and the job, maybe I would have actually come with you."

"Honestly, tomorrow," I muttered, shaking my head. "So how long is it going to be? I'd say two weeks, tops."

Alice sighed, sat up and turned to look at me with an exaggeratedly pained expression on her face. "No way. I think you've got wrong idea about this whole thing. It's not your regular summer vacation. This is about being spontaneous. Doing something extreme. Taking a timeout. Enjoying life."

"So how long do you want it to be then?" I asked, giving up. There was no way of negotiating with Alice when she was in that mood.

Alice shrugged cheerfully. "I don't know. As long as feels good."

"So we're not even going to discuss it?" I asked. "Just tell me, what did you come to plan, if there's absolutely nothing in this crazy idea you actually want to plan? And how can we know how much clothes do we take with us, if we don't know how long we're going to stay?"

"There are things called coin laundries, darling."

Alice and Angela stayed for a couple of hours more, then Angela had to get to work and Alice said she wanted to start packing. By that time we had planned everything that Alice had agreed to plan. Tomorrow at noon. Alice would pick me up and we'd leave. I had some savings and Alice had been working at a clothing store this spring, so at least we would have money for a while.

The only problem was my parents.

As the hours ticked by I became more and more nervous. There was no way Mom would let me go. And Dad wouldn't be happy about this either, even though he usually left the arguing to Mom. If I wanted to go to that road trip, I would have to basically run away.

Somehow I still found myself packing, throwing t-shirts and shorts and pants and even few dresses – even though I wasn't a dress person like Alice – into my bag.

The dinner was quiet. Mom and I weren't speaking with each other; a couple of times it looked like Mom would have wanted to start fighting again but Dad silenced her with a glare. I was thinking that it was a good thing Alice had convinced me to leave tomorrow. This was certainly not the way I wanted to spend the summer. Maybe this insane, reckless road trip was going to be a disaster but there was nothing for me in Forks either. After all, I had been dying to get out. That was maybe the only reason I had been so upset about not getting into university – I wasn't even sure what I wanted to study yet.

After dinner I decided that I would just have to do it now.

"I'm going on a road trip with Alice," I said as Mom was cleaning the table and Dad was reading the paper.

"What?" They both turned to look at me at the same time.

"So, um… we're leaving tomorrow and – "

"Hold on a second, young lady," Mom said in a tense voice. "What makes you think that you are going anywhere?"

"I know it's kind of abrupt, but we only just came up with the idea," I said.

Mom looked completely astonished. "You want to go on a road trip."

"I'm _going_ on a road trip. Tomorrow," I said, hoping to let them know that this wasn't something we were discussing.

"You are not going anywhere," Mom snapped. "You can't just decide something like that without asking us first and you are certainly not leaving tomorrow – "

"Really?" It was me who interrupted Mom this time. "Last time I checked I was legally an adult, which, if you don't remember, happens to mean that I can do what I want and you can't stop me."

"Charlie, say something to your daughter," Mom said, looking like she was just about to lose her temper.

"Let's think about this, Bella." Dad sighed, looking uncomfortable that he had been pulled into this. "How would you even get the money to go on a vacation?"

"I've got some money," I said defiantly. "There is nothing to discuss. I am going, whether you like it or not."

"For God's_ sake_!" mom yelled. "What has happened to you? When did you become so… self-centered?"

"You have some nerve to call me self-centered. You're the one who only ever cares about yourself and what you want. You want me to get good grades. You want me to go to some top university. You want me to get a job. You want me to stay here," I shouted. "And I'm sick of it! Can't you see? I can't stand being here."

I turned around and stormed out of the room. "Isabella Marie Swan, you get back here now!" Mom shouted after me, but I didn't listen.

Up in my room I felt exhausted. That had been the second fight in two days, and all this fighting made me feel anxious and worn out. I sighed and shoved some underwear, pair of shoes and a couple more shirts into my bag and then went to bed. Even though I was feeling pretty low, I couldn't stop the sudden surge of excitement. I didn't have any idea what tomorrow had in store for me and it had been a long time since I had felt that my life was that unpredictable. Maybe this was just what I needed.

**xxx**

"Are you ready?" Alice leaned against her red Chevy and looked bright. She was wearing a pink sundress that was so short I would never have had the confidence to wear it, but somehow it looked both cute and sexy on Alice.

"I don't know." I smiled, brimming with excitement and threw my big sports bag and backpack to the backseat. "My parents won't be happy about this."

I thought about the note I had left on the kitchen table. "_I left for the road trip. I wasn't kidding. Call me if you need anything. Remember, I'm a big girl now and can take care of myself. Bella._" I was certain mom would never have guessed that I would just leave like that. The thought made me grin; I wouldn't have thought that I would either.

"What did they say?" Alice asked.

"Nevermind about that now. They'll kill me later," I said.

"True," Alice agreed and sat down on the driver's seat. I sat beside her on the passenger's seat. "So I've got everything we need. I've got the money, the tent, the booze – "

"Alice!" I interrupted her.

She looked at me sheepishly. "What? We aren't driving _all_ the time."

"Guess that's true." I gave up.

"And I've got this amazing road trip CD I made." Alice handed me a CD case and I looked at it smiling. Alice had drawn a picture of the two of us and on top of it were the words "Alice and Bella's big adventure".

"Awesome," I said. "Looks like we're ready to go."

Alice started the engine and I took the CD from the case and put it in the player. This was really it. I couldn't cancel it anymore; I couldn't back down even if I wanted to. Alice and Bella's big adventure had begun.

I grinned as I recognized the first song on the CD. It was U2's _Beautiful Day_, Mine and Alice's summer song; we had this habit of dancing and singing along to it when we got drunk. Soon we were both singing along as we drove past the center of Forks.

"_You're on the road_

_But you've got no destination_

_You're in the mud_

_In the maze of her imagination_"

I looked at Alice who was laughing and singing at the same time, her short dark hair a mess as always and couldn't help feeling far more excited than I had felt in ages.

"Maybe this is a good idea," I said as the song was ending.

"I know this is a good idea," Alice said, rolling her eyes like I was being stupid. "Mine usually are."

I punched her on the shoulder and shook my head.

"Ouch. No need the get violent if you don't want me to crash the car before we even get out of Forks," Alice snorted and pretended to look offended.

"Seriously, though," I said. "I have a suggestion."

"Yeah?"

"Let's end this trip in California. We could visit Laurent," I said.

"Sure," Alice said. "It's been a while since we've been there anyway. He'd better have some pretty hot new rock stars to introduce us to."

Alice had been with me to visit him a couple of times, and she liked my godfather just as much as I did. I didn't know if it was his charming personality or merely the fact that he knew so many celebrities. Alice almost hooked up with one of the Jonas Brothers the last time we were there.

It was a wonderful afternoon. We just kept driving and singing along to the songs. After a while I rolled my window open and let the wind mess up my hair. I felt alive.

"I'm hungry," Alice announced after two hours. "I'd say let's try to find an almost decent looking café and get something to eat."

"Sounds good," I mumbled. Now that she'd mentioned it, I felt a bit hungry too.

We drove on for a while, but all that we saw on the side of the road was couple of gas stations that looked so shady that we decided to skip those.

"Hey, wait!" Alice cried out suddenly and slowed down so fast my seatbelt almost choked me.

"As if I was going somewhere," I muttered and turned to see what Alice was looking at. I thought she'd found a nice looking restaurant, but all I saw was another one of those gas stations and some hitchhiker, with a huge backpack. Then I suddenly understood why she had stopped so abruptly. I turned to look at Alice with astonishment as the hitchhiker walked towards us.

"You gotta be kidding me." I shook my head.

"What? He's good looking, don't you think?" Alice said innocently and bent over to open my door.

"Where are you going?" Alice asked from the guy who was now standing beside our car with his hands in his pockets. He was about our age, with a messy bronze hair that fell partly over his eyes and a crooked grin.

The guy shrugged and lifted one hand to ruffle his hair. "I don't know. Where are you going?"

"Um, Seattle, I think," Alice glanced at me quickly and I gave her a murderous look she pretended to ignore. "Hop in."

"Thanks," the guy said in a husky voice, opening the back door and climbing in.

Alice started the engine and started driving again like nothing had happened. I gave her furious looks but she refused to even look at my direction. What was she thinking? Picking up some random guy at the side of the road. He could be some psychopathic killer or whatever and now he was sitting on our back seat. I mean, we didn't even know his name.

"I'm Edward, by the way," said the stranger on the backseat, as if he had read my thoughts. "You?"

"I'm Alice," Alice said and smiled at Edward via rearview mirror. "And my cranky friend here is Bella. We were just going to stop for some lunch, by the way. If that's fine?"

"Cool," Edward said. "Nice to meet you, Bella."

I rolled my eyes at his obviously sarcastic tone of voice. I just mumbled a response, not bothering to hide the fact that I wasn't overly enthusiastic about him joining our company.

After few minutes we passed by a halfway decent looking place and Alice pulled into the parking lot. We stepped inside the small coffee shop that was actually quite comfy inside and each of us ordered sandwiches and coffee.

"Alice?" I said, in a tense voice. "A word, please?" Before she had time to answer, I dragged her to the women's toilets and then turned to look at her.

"Okay, what the hell was that?"

"What do you mean?" Alice asked innocently. Well, she wasn't fooling me.

"You know very well what! You don't just get to take some random hitchhiker with us without first asking me," I snapped.

"The only reason why I didn't ask you was because you would have said no," Alice explained.

I walked back and forth in the small room, trying to gather my thoughts. "Yes, of course. Alice, we don't know anything about that guy. He could be like some… criminal, or something."

Alice didn't look worried. Actually to me it looked like she was quite excited. "Aren't you just a bit curious? Besides, he's hot, haven't you noticed?"

I sighed. It was pointless, trying to talk some sense to Alice. And yes, I had sort of noticed that he looked good, but it didn't mean he couldn't be a serial killer. "This is not about his looks, Alice," I said.

"Isn't everything about looks these days?" Alice asked. "Superficial 21st century society, you know."

"Not funny!" I turned to face Alice so fiercely that she had to take a step back.

"It's a bit," Alice said and a giggle escaped her mouth.

I couldn't help chuckling just a bit myself, even though I tried to disguise it as a cough. I had to agree that the two of us fighting in some coffee shop's toilet about some weird guy named Edward was just a bit funny.

"Wasn't this all about being adventurous?" Alice asked. "I was bored. You were bored. It's no big deal."

"Yeah, right."

"Look, if he turns out to be awful, we'll get rid of him anyway in Seattle," Alice said.

"If he's some kind of nutter and ends up killing us both, you are so dead!" I snapped.

Alice snorted. "Obviously."

"You know what I meant," I said.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," Alice said. "By the way, he is just your type. That sexy hair and did you see those muscular arms?"

I smacked Alice. "He is not my type!"

"Sure, sure," Alice said. "That's what you always say."

"Don't push it, Alice. I'm still mad at you," I said but I knew that Alice didn't believe that. I didn't even believe that myself. I could never be mad at Alice for that long.

"Now let's go find out what that Edward's all about," Alice said and pulled me out of the ladies room.


	3. It's a beautiful day

**A/N: Hey, Guys! Hope you like this chap and hope you have a nice weekend :)  
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3 – It's a beautiful day

"So what's your story?" Alice asked Edward. We were eating our sandwiches and coffees, and I was only half listening to their conversation and half concentrating on eating.

Edward raised his eyes to look at Alice, and I noticed that they were a really deep shade of green. Not that I cared though, but whatever.

"I haven't got one yet," Edward told her. "I'm writing it."

"Okay," Alice said. "So where do you live?"

"I used to live in Port Angeles," Edward replied and took another bite of his sandwich. "Now I don't know anymore."

"So you ran away?" Alice questioned.

"Kind of, I guess."

"Nice. That's what Bella did, didn't you?" Alice said, looking at me.

I put my sandwich down. "I didn't run away, Alice is just being dramatic," I explained to Edward. "I told my parents where I was going."

"Really? Because I was under the impression that we haven't decided where we're going," Alice said. "And you left them _a note_. That counts as running away."

"How did _you _get permission from your mom, by the way?" I asked.

"Well, she knows she can't control what I do. I'm a free spirit like that." Alice smiled.

"Your mom's nice." I sighed.

"Well, you can have her if you want," Alice joked.

"Thanks."

Edward looked from me to Alice and back. I had the feeling that he was trying to figure us out. Well, I was trying to figure him out too. Every now and then, I took quick sideways glances in his direction, taking notice of his bronze hair, green eyes, the way his lips curved when he smiled, his blue t-shirt.

"You two are fun," he said finally. "So what are you going to do in Seattle?"

I looked at Alice. "We never discussed that. Sightseeing?" I suggested. "What do people do on road trips?"

"Sightseeing, huh?" Edward said and seemed to be silently amused about something.

"What are _you_ going to do?" Alice asked.

"Who knows? I'll find something interesting enough to do," Edward answered. "I've got couple of friends in Seattle. I might go visit them."

I struggled with myself a while, but then asked: "And then?" I was still curious about him even though I tried not to be. He was pretty mysterious with his backpack and worn-out jeans and green eyes. It was irritating, but suddenly I wanted to find out more about him.

Edward shrugged. "Las Vegas, San Francisco, maybe Phoenix... We'll see."

"Oooh," Alice gasped. "Las Vegas. Bella, we have to see Las Vegas."

I smiled. "Everything in time, Alice. Guess we can go to Las Vegas if you want to."

"You haven't said much about yourselves," Edward pointed out as we were walking back to the car. "Where are you from? What are you running away from?"

Alice unlocked the car doors and got inside. "We're not running away from anything. We're running toward something."

"Toward what?"

"_Adventures_," I answered before Alice, rolling my eyes.

"Cool," Edward said.

"And we're from Forks," Alice added.

"Small town girls," Edward said, half to himself, as he sat down in the back seat, "alone in the big world."

"Something like that," I muttered as Alice started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

Half an hour later, I was dozing off in the passenger seat, Alice was humming along to the song on the radio, and Edward was talking to someone on the phone. I didn't mean to, but I still listened to what he was saying.

"Yeah, I'll be there in an hour," Edward was saying. "No, with two girls. No, they're cool." Then he paused and chuckled a little. "Well, tell Emmett to calm down. You're both idiots. Yes, I already knew that… Yeah, fine." He tapped the window with his finger restlessly. "I said fine… Okay, see you. Bye."

"That sounded interesting," Alice commented. Guess I wasn't the only one listening.

"Just my friends" Edward explained. "They're being jerks as always."

"That's a nice thing to say about your friends," I remarked.

"Bella, you can be such an idiot sometimes, too, but I still love you," Alice pointed out.

"Thanks," I said, trying to decide whether to be offended or not. She had called me an idiot and said she loved me in the same sentence after all.

It was late afternoon when we arrived in Seattle. By that time, the sun was already hiding behind some dark clouds, and it would probably start raining before evening. It took us a while to find a place to park the car, but eventually we found a parking lot that seemed to be pretty close to the city center.

All three of us hopped out of the car and looked around at the busy shopping streets and big buildings. I had been in Seattle a few times before, but it still looked so different and exciting compared to Forks or Port Angeles, where we usually went to shop.

"So," Alice said, still looking around. "We're in Seattle."

"So my friends, Emmett and Jasper –" Edward started.

"The jerks?" I asked, a small smile playing on my lips.

"Yeah, the jerks." Edward grinned and looked me in the eyes. It was just a quick look, but somehow it made me feel a bit uneasy. I didn't know why, maybe it was the intimacy of looking someone in the eye who you had known for only an hour or two. I felt stupid, being intimidated by such a small thing and tried to concentrate on what Edward was saying.

"They offered to take you two around the city a bit," Edward said. "Show you the best places. And then, tonight, if you're not bored with us by then, you could come check out the party they're having. What do you say?"

Alice looked at me with a questioningly. She didn't say anything, but I knew that she wanted to go with them. And I knew that maybe it wasn't clever, but I kind of wanted to go, too. After all I wanted to find out more about him.

"I guess it's fine," I said. "Alice has the worst sense of direction ever. We would just get lost on our own."

"Oh, so now _I_ have the worst sense of direction?" Alice rolled her eyes but sounded pleased all the same. "Leave it to Bella and we'd be lost in five minutes."

I shook my head but didn't say anything, because I knew that my sense of direction was just as bad as hers. I didn't even care to think about how many times we were going to get lost during this road trip. Oh well, at least we were going to get lost together.

"So, I'll call them, then," Edward said. "They'll come to pick us up."

Edward's friends arrived in fifteen minutes. The first one was a big and muscular guy with short hair. His size and huge muscles immediately made him look scary, even though he was smiling. The other one was skinnier and not as tall, with long hair. Their clothes were some kind of mixture of hippie and rock star style, kind of like Edward's.

Edward let out an excited yelp when he saw them and rushed to give them some kind of man hug, slapping on the back in greeting.

Both seemed to be equally excited to see him, and for a while, none of them paid any attention to me or Alice. Then, Edward pulled them toward us.

"These are my friends," Edward introduced the boys.

"Hi, I'm Jasper." The smaller one with long blonde hair grinned at us. I saw Alice looking at him with a mesmerized look in her eyes. I shook my head and made a mental note to warn Alice not to have a crush on some stranger.

"And I go by the name 'The Great Super Awesome Hot King Emmett,'" said the muscular guy as he took a small bow.

Alice and I couldn't help laughing as Jasper and Edward both shot impatient glances at each other as if to say 'here we go again.'

"Nice." I nodded approvingly. "That's quite a name. Your parents must really like you."

"If you think that's too much for you, you can always just call me Emmett," he added. "But not Emm – that sounds like a girl's name."

"Okay, Emm, let's go, if we want to show these ladies something in Seattle other than your oversized ego," Jasper said and turned around. We all followed him out of the parking lot.

"What are we going to do?" Alice asked as we walked down a street toward the city center. Or at least I thought we were going toward the center.

"Well, I think we first have to go through the usual tourist places," Jasper said. "All the boring must-see stuff, you know."

"And then," Emmett said with a mysterious grin, "When the sun's set, we can show you the interesting Seattle."

After few minutes' walk, Jasper finally stopped at what seemed to be a busy market street. "Here we are," Jasper said. "Welcome to the Pike Place Market, the biggest public market in Seattle,

containing about fifty annoying tourists per square foot."

"What could possibly be boring about this?" Alice said to me in a low voice, and I had to agree. It was so colorful, full of people and street musicians and interesting looking stalls.

"Let's go take a look around," Edward said.

"Yeah, to get to the interesting stuff as soon as possible," Emmett agreed.

"Everyone knows that by _interesting stuff_ you mean girls and drugs, but we aren't all that shallow." Edward chuckled. Emmett tried to punch him on the arm, but Edward quickly leaped out of his reach, laughing.

"Behave, guys, or you're going to scare Bella and Alice here," Jasper said as we started to walk through the market street.

We wandered around the Pike Place Market for a while, and found out that it sold about everything from fish and vegetables to tourist t-shirts. Alice and I looked around in awe of everything, but Emmett and Jasper and even Edward looked like they had seen it a hundred times before. Mstly they just chatted about some people they all knew or cracked jokes. Especially Emmett, who seemed to add some kind of joke or snide remark to at least every third sentence he let out of his mouth. All in all, they were pretty fun to hang out with.

After about half an hour, we were still walking through the market streets, stopping every now and then to check out an interesting looking stall. Alice and Jasper walked a little ahead of the rest of us, talking about something and once in a while Alice giggled cheerfully. I let out a little worried sigh looking at them. I knew by experience exactly when my best friend was developing a crush on someone, and she was so falling for that guy. If I asked her about it, she would probably deny it. Well, maybe she didn't even know it herself.

"Don't worry," Edward said to me, looking at Alice and Jasper, too. He probably guessed what I was thinking about. "Jasper's a good guy - your friend's safe."

"And why should I believe you?" I asked, smiling a little.

"I'm a good guy, too," Edward said.

"Hah, you? A good guy?" Snorted Emmett sarcastically, walking to our side. "I'm sure your parents would agree."

"Depends on the definition of good," Edward said.

"Yeah, right. I would say we've had enough of this. I don't know about you, but I'm starving. So what do you say we grab some food and go for a picnic in one of the parks?" Emmett suggested, "As a tourist, I guess you have to see some parks."

Jasper turned around to look at us. "Did someone mention a picnic? I'm starving."

We bought some fried chicken, bread rolls, chips and strawberries, and Emmett – who was apparently over 21 or using a fake ID– bought us some beer, insisting that it wouldn't be a proper picnic without beer.

We walked to a nearby park with our food and sat on the grass. Emmett dug into the chicken as soon as we sat down, and Edward passed cans of beer to everyone.

"I'm driving, remember?" Alice pointed out as Edward held out a beer for her.

"Oh come on. One beer," Emmett said, his mouth full of chicken. "Besides, we're going to walk to my place for the party anyway, so you won't need a car anytime soon."

Alice thought for a while, then shrugged and took the beer from Edward. I opened my beer and a bag of chips and lay down on the grass. There were still clouds in the sky, and the wind was making the air pretty cold for a summer afternoon, so I zipped up my hoodie. Still, I liked the clouds; they were so dreamlike and so far away, their edges blurry, like they hadn't quite decided what kind of cloud they wanted to be yet. Just like me.

"What are you thinking about?" Edward laid down on the grass next to me. I felt a bit uneasy; it was weird for practically a stranger to ask that kind of personal question.

"Just the clouds," I said. "They are interesting."

Edward looked up at the sky, too. "Yeah, guess you could say that. But it's all in our heads, you know? We imagine that they resemble something, when really they don't. They don't look like anything but clouds. But we make them look how we want them to in our heads. It's all just psychology."

I looked at him, a bit surprised. He turned to look at me and smiled a little. I couldn't help smiling back.

"Hey, Edward, come get some chicken before Emmett eats everything," Jasper said. Edward gave me one more sideways look, sat up, and that odd little moment was over.

Alice and I weren't really hungry yet, so we mainly just sat, sipped our beers and wondered how guys could always eat so much and still be so skinny.

When almost all the food was eaten, Emmett looked at his watch. "I think we should start to get back to my place soon. We still have that party to keep," he said to Jasper.

"What time is it starting?" Edward asked.

"I don't know, I don't think I actually told anyone." Emmett shrugged. "Maybe it has already started."

"By the way, how long are you going to stay in Seattle?" Jasper asked Alice.

Alice looked at me. "I don't know."

"Not long, probably," I said. "What do you think?"

"Yeah," Alice said. "I guess we have to get going pretty soon. I mean, the road trip's just starting, and we have so much to see."

"How long are you going to stay?" I asked Edward to fill the silence.

"Not that long, either," Edward replied."Few days maybe."

"Well, we have to go," Emmett said and stood up. "Jasper and I have business to take care of. Care to join us, ladies?"

"I don't even want to know what you mean by business," Edward muttered. "And hey! Did you just call me lady?"

"No Edward, I meant that tree over there, because she's just dying to come to the party with us." Emmett rolled his eyes. "So Bella, Alice, are you coming?"

"Guess we are." Alice stood up and shook grass off her dress. "I need a party about now."

Emmett's apartment was only couple of blocks away from the park. It was on the third floor of a big, old-looking apartment building. Emmett opened the door, and we all stepped inside after him. The apartment was pretty small – two bedrooms and a tiny kitchen.

"So, there's the kitchen," Emmett introduced, pointing at the kitchen that was technically just a part of the living room and consisted of a small fridge, microwave, few kitchen cabinets and lots of pizza boxes in the sink. "And here's my bedroom, and the other one is my roommate's. Though, I haven't seen him in a while, actually. I hope he's still alive. Well, whatever, he's weird. And here's the living room."

In the living room area, there were a couch, a couple of pretty old looking armchairs and a table. It looked just as messy as you would have expected.

"Okay, so we have a party to prepare for. Let's get to work, everyone," Emmett said. "I'll go grab some more beer and some other stuff while Jasper and Edward clean the house, 'kay?"

"What do we do, then?" I asked.

"Well, you're the guests – relax, grab some beer from the fridge," Emmett suggested, grabbed his keys and disappeared out of the door again.

Alice and I sat on the couch. Edward and Jasper's cleaning up consisted mainly of tossing Emmett's clothes under his bed and throwing the pizza boxes down from the balcony.

I leaned my head against Alice who sat next to me. It had already been such a long day.

"We've been kind of stupid, you know?" I said to her. I still couldn't quite believe that all of this had really just happened. I wasn't usually this irresponsible. "We just went into some total stranger's home."

"I guess so," Alice said. "But I had a good feeling about this, you know. That Jasper, I kind of feel like I can trust him, you know what I mean?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I know what you mean. You're into him."

"No, I'm not! I mean yes, he's hot, but I'm certainly not into him." Alice laughed like the whole idea was ridiculous.

"Sure, sure. Just remember that we're only here for a while. Don't do anything stupid," I warned her.

"Bella, you know I wouldn't have sex with him," Alice looked at me, offended that I would have even though she would.

I shook my head amused. "I meant don't fall in love with him."

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	4. Like me you don't do anything youre told

**A/N:**** So, hope you like this chapter. And I'd really appreciat****e it if you'd leave a review and tell me what you think. Have a nice weekend! :)**

4 – Just like me you don't do anything you're told 

It was past nine o'clock and the party was in full swing. It was weird, being in a party where you knew basically no one. There were lots of people though, most of them about my age or a bit older. I grabbed another one of someone else's beers from the kitchen counter and looked around the living room, which was full of people. Everyone seemed to be having fun; four guys were passing a joint in the corner of the room, a couple was making out so passionately on the couch that it looked like it would be a miracle if they managed to keep their clothes on for much longer. Someone had put music on and few girls were dancing on the table, because there was no room anywhere else.

I was just finishing my beer when I heard my phone ringing in my pocket. I looked at the screen and sighed. After a few rings I decided that I'd better answer and walked to the balcony, because it was empty at the moment.

"Hi Mom," I said, after I had carefully closed the door.

"What the hell is this, Bella?" Mom sounded absolutely furious. Well, I guess I hadn't really expected anything else. "What makes you think that it's okay to just disappear and leave a _note_?"

"I told you yesterday," I said, realizing how weird it felt that it had happened such a short time ago. The day seemed to have lasted forever. "I said I was going on a road trip with Alice."

"And I said you were not," Mom almost yelled.

"Mom, I'm an adult now," I said, fed up with this. "I can do what I want."

There was a short silence on the other end of the phone. "That's ridiculous, Bella," Mom finally responded. "I never thought you would do something like that."

There was a small thump from the doorway and I turned around to see that Edward had stepped onto the balcony and closed the door behind him.

"I have to go now," I said to Mom. "I'll talk to you later."

"No, Bella!" Mom hissed. "You do not hang up on me."

"Honestly, I have to go and I don't know what there is to talk about this, anymore," I said, giving a sideways glance to Edward. He was lighting a cigarette, and smiled at me a little when he saw I was looking at him.

"Just tell me that you are coming home tomorrow," Mom commanded.

"Can't you see that I can't, Mom?" I said. "You can be as mad at me as you want to, but I'm not coming back. What would I even do in Forks?"

"You'd get a job," Mom said. "Spend your time doing something useful."

"Yeah, well I might as well get a job in Las Vegas or anywhere," I retorted.

"Bella," Mom said in a warning voice.

"I have to go now," I said. "I'll talk to you later. Good night."

I hung up the phone and rubbed my face tiredly. It was probably the long day combined with all that beer that suddenly made me feel exhausted.

"Want some?" Edward offered his cigarette to me. I was about to refuse but then I just thought, why not. I took the cigarette between my fingers and inhaled deeply. After a while I breathed out the smoke to the chilly evening air.

"Problems with your parents?" Edward asked.

I passed the cigarette back to him. "Aren't there always?"

"Guess you could say so." Edward chuckled. "At least mine are quite a pair."

"Is that why you ran away?" I found myself asking.

Edward held out the cigarette to me. "I'm nineteen, I didn't technically run away."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," I said. "Apparently my mom didn't see it quite like that."

"Anyway, it's just something I've done a couple of times, since I was sixteen," Edward explained. "Just wandered off for a while. Usually I go back eventually."

"And this time?"

Edward inhaled the smoke for the last time and put out the cigarette before he answered. "Maybe. I don't know."

"You don't seem to plan a lot," I noted.

"Says the girl who doesn't know where she's going after Seattle." Edward smiled, looking at me. For a while my eyes locked with his. It was a weird moment; I just found myself thinking that Alice was right – he was kind of hot. Then I realized that I was staring at his face, looking stupid and I turned my eyes away quickly. I'd obviously had too much beer.

"What am I doing?" I asked no one in particular.

"I thought you were going on a road trip." Edward touched my shoulder comfortingly and it startled me a bit. I realized that we were standing really close; I didn't know how that had happened.

"Let's go inside," I said after a few seconds of silence. "I need to find Alice."

I didn't see Alice in the living room. I checked out Emmett's room; there was a group of guys and two girls playing cards. They asked me to join them, but I still wanted to find Alice and there was no sign of her there. That's when I started to get kind of worried. I think that was when it finally hit me, we were in a strange place full of people we didn't know and I couldn't find Alice anywhere. Suddenly it all started to feel more and more stupid; it was against everything we were ever taught about strangers. And even though Edward and his mates seemed like good guys, we didn't know them after only one day of hanging out together.

I was almost starting to panic when I thought to check Emmett's roommate's room, even though I didn't know why Alice would have gone there. I opened the door and stared into the room with my mouth open. Alice was on the bed – with Jasper. Well, they both seemed to have their clothes on, but that was about all I could say. Jasper's mouth was on Alice's and his hand was making its way up to her thigh under her dress.

I didn't have time to decide what to do before Alice noticed me. Quickly she pulled away from Jasper and blushed.

"Hi Bella," she said, grinning.

"I was looking for you," I said. "I got a little worried when I couldn't find you anywhere."

"Well, I was… um, with Jasper," Alice said. Jasper grinned at me apologetically.

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, I can see that."

"I'll come to the living room in a minute," Alice said and gave me her get-the-fuck-out-of-here look.

"Sure, nice that you're having fun." I grinned. "Just remember what you said earlier."

"Bella, you know I wouldn't," Alice exclaimed.

"I'm not so sure," I muttered to myself and closed the door behind me. Really, I wasn't that worried. I knew Alice was usually smart and it was time she had some fun again. It had taken her a long while to get over her last boyfriend. I just hoped she wouldn't get too attached to him; we were leaving soon, after all.

I sat on the living room couch next to Edward who was talking to some girl. Once he saw me sitting next to him he gave me a small smile. I tried to concentrate as he talked with the girl about some band I didn't know but all I wanted was to fall asleep.

**xxx**

It was raining the next morning. The first sound I heard was cozy rain pattering against the window, before I even realized I was awake. Then I opened my eyes, looking at the ceiling, I turned my eyes and was relieved to see Alice sleeping next to me.

I had slept through the rest of the party last night, which was surprising, because of all the noise. Right now Alice and I were sleeping on the double bed in Emmett's roommate's bedroom, since Emmett had said it was okay.

I sat up and walked to the window. I liked the rain, which I guess was kind of good, given that I had grown up in Forks. Of course, sometimes I did get fed up with it raining all the time and the sunny days were lovely, because there weren't many of them, but the rain was somehow comforting.

"Bella?" Alice mumbled from the bed.

"Yes?"'

"Nothing," Alice said and rolled around in the bed. "Did you have fun yesterday?"

"You at least seemed to have." I grinned.

Alice smiled, too, as she sat up and leaned against the wall. "I can't deny that."

"You like him," I said, and sat down on the bed.

"I don't know," Alice sighed. "We just had a bit of fun, that's all. I don't think Jasper would even want anything more."

"But you would." It wasn't a question, more like a statement. For a while Alice looked like she was going to deny it, but then she realized that I would have seen through her anyway.

"It doesn't matter," Alice said. "We'll be leaving soon, anyway. We could leave today already. I mean, it's probably going to rain the whole day. We might just as well spent it driving."

There was just a hint of sadness in her voice. But that's just the way Alice was; she was always quick to have crushes. Unlike me, I was just quick at getting over people. Which was better, if you asked me; that way you wouldn't get hurt when they would leave.

"Guess so," I said.

Then there was a knock and we both turned to look at the door. "Hey girls, time for breakfast," Emmett said.

"We're coming," I said. Since we had left almost all our stuff in the car, we just pulled on the same clothes as yesterday and went to the living room where the three guys already sat. Everyone else seemed to have finally gone home. The place was a mess, just like you would expect after a big party.

"What do we have for breakfast?" Alice asked brightly, but I saw that she was making sure to not look at Jasper who was trying to smile at her.

"Um," Emmett said. "We have some leftover pizza, beer and, well, more beer."

"I think I'll go for the leftover pizza then," I said and took a cold slice of pizza from Emmett. I was so hungry that it tasted pretty good, actually.

"So, Bella and I were thinking about leaving today," Alice said as we finished breakfast. "It's pretty crappy weather so there's not much to do anyway, so…"

"You're leaving already?" Emmett sounded disappointed. "But we haven't shown you almost anything yet. You still have a lot of Seattle to explore."

"If they're leaving, I might as well get going, too. No use hanging around here with you," Edward said.

"Some would think you don't love us anymore, Edward," Emmett said and pretended to wipe a tear from his cheek.

"You're such a drama queen, Emm," Jasper said.

"Don't call me Emm, Jazzie," Emmett said.

"Hey, don't call me that, it sounds like a girl," Jasper said.

"Exactly!"

Jasper sighed. "Well, anyway, while Emm here is being childish, I have an idea," Jasper said, looking at Alice and me. "You could come back on your return to Forks. We could show you the rest of Seattle."

"Sounds good," Alice said with a small, playful smile on her lips. "Maybe we will."

After breakfast we helped the guys clean up the apartment. Then we just sat in the living room, not really knowing what we were supposed to do now, but reluctant to leave just yet.

"So, I have about an hour before I have to be at work," Emmett said finally. "We could walk you to the car."

"Good idea," Jasper said. "You're never going to find it on your own anyway."

Alice and I would have liked to argue but it was probably true.

"So Edward," I said finally, when Alice and I picked up our bags. Edward had been kind of quiet all morning. I didn't know if he had a hangover or if it was something else. "You could come with us."

Edward turned to look at me, surprised. "I mean, if you don't really know where you're going and we don't really know where we want to go and you need a ride anyway. If you want to," I said nervously. I didn't quite know what made me say that. Maybe it was the feeling I'd had every now and then since yesterday, like I wanted to know more about him. I know maybe I shouldn't have suggested it or at least I should have asked Alice, but well, it was her fault we were with him in the first place.

Edward looked from me to Alice and back. "Well, if you don't mind...?"

Alice gave me a surprised glance. "It would be nice," she assured him then.

"Cool," Edward said.

"Cool," I answered.

"So will you come back? At the end of the road trip?" Jasper asked Alice as we walked back to the car. They were just a bit ahead of the rest of us, but close enough for me to hear what they were saying.

"Yeah, I guess we could. That would be nice," Alice said.

"It would," Jasper said and looked like he meant it. "I saved my number on your phone last night. So if you do come back, you know how to find me."

"Good." Alice looked pleased.

At the car, Alice threw me the car keys. "It's your turn to drive."

We gave slightly awkward goodbyes to Emmett and Jasper, Jasper kissed Alice on the cheek and made her smile widely, and then we were on the road again.

"So, what's our next location?" Edward asked.

That made me smile, because I realized that I was already driving and I still didn't have any idea what our destination was.

"Let's see. Edward, the map's on the back seat, can you give it to me?" Alice asked. Edward passed the map to Alice who spread it out.

"How about Portland?" Alice asked.

"I don't know. What's in there?"

"No idea," Edward said from the backseat.

"Me neither," Alice said.

"Well, let's go find out," Edward said.

"Fine by me," Alice agreed.

"Just tell me where I need to drive," I said.

Alice put the road trip CD on again. It was still raining but I didn't mind driving in rain; it made the atmosphere somehow restful.

I glanced at Alice, who looked thoughtful. Not actually sad, but maybe a bit longing. I wondered if she missed Jasper, even though they'd met less than twenty-four hours ago. Yesterday at this time she didn't even know him and now she missed him just a bit, even though she wouldn't have admitted it if I asked. I didn't know if it was possible to become fond of someone so fast. Maybe it was. After all, I had asked Edward to join us, too. I didn't know why I had done it; maybe I just liked his presence – his careless approach to life, his sense of humor and his weird, cute crooked smile.

I shook my head a little, feeling stupid finding myself thinking about that. I turned to smile at Alice.

"Hey, he gave you his phone number," I said positively.

"Yeah," Alice said and smiled a little.


	5. If you weren't real I would make you up

**A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has added this to their story alert or favorite lists, though I would really appreciate it if you would also tell me what you think :) Hope you like this chap, at least I enjoyed writing it! :)**

5 – If you weren't real, I would make you up

"We are lost."

"Trust me, we are not lost."

"Yes we are. We should have been there by now!"

"Not necessarily."

"I am driving this car and if I say we're lost, then we are lost," I snapped.

"We're not."

Alice and I both turned to look at Edward at the same time. "Say something," Alice said.

"Relax, girls." Edward grinned.

"How can we relax when we're in the middle of nowhere, no idea where we are on the map and no idea where we're going?" I asked.

"I think the only way you can find yourself is first being lost," Edward said in an amused voice. "So? It's not necessarily a bad thing."

I shook my head. "That wasn't really helpful."

"Focus on driving, Bella, if you ever want to get to Portland," Alice noted, looking out of the window and then back at the map again.

"I'm telling you, we are not even going to Portland," I said, looking out for some kind of signposts. "We are on the wrong road."

"We're not. Do you think that I can't read the map?"

"I know you can't read the map."

"Hey, girls," Edward called out from the backseat. "Do you know what you need?"

"What?" we both asked at the same time in equally irritated voices.

"A break."

"Are you kidding me? We're in the middle of nowhere, and we don't even know where we are, and we better find out if we want to get to Portland someday soon."

"Look, just pull over the side of the road," Edward said. "I don't care if we get to Portland anytime soon or if we never get there. You're too stressed out, given that you're on a holiday."

"He's right. Let's take a break," Alice agreed.

"Fine," I said. "So, where do I stop?"

"Here," Edward said. "Just pull on the side of the road."

"But I can't stop here. There's nothing here," I pointed out. We were on a pretty small road that seemed to just go on forever. There were basically nothing else but forest at either side of the road.

"Yes there is, just stop," Edward insisted.

I did as he told me and pulled over on the side of the road and hopped out of the car, and the other two followed after me.

"What did I tell you? There's nothing here," I said to Edward, feeling annoyed and tired of driving. I would just like to get somewhere already.

"There's a lot to see," Edward said, and looked at me smiling. I didn't get what was so amusing. "There's the forest and the houses, and look, there's even a gas station there. And it's not even raining anymore. Much."

I looked at Edward and giggled a bit. I didn't know why, but I was beginning to see the funny side of this too.

"We still don't have any idea where we are." I sighed.

"Isn't it nice?" Edward asked. "Come on. Let's take a walk."

Alice and I followed as Edward walked toward the nearby forest. "Don't you have forests in Port Angeles?" I questioned.

"They're different forests than in Oregon," Edward told us.

"I wouldn't know," I said. "I've never been in a forest in Oregon."

We walked into the woods, and after a while even I had to admit it was a good idea. It was so quiet and peaceful – and so beautiful. Even though I had basically lived my whole life in the middle of a forest, I never got fed up with it; I loved forests. They had this mysterious atmosphere, as if they hid a lot of secrets that no one knew.

"See?" Edward said in a low voice. "It's not about where we are. It's not about being lost or reaching our destination. It's all about the journey."

"You're weird," I muttered, grinning. "Is that why you're always traveling?"

"I like seeing new places, new people. It's the only way you can fully live," Edward replied. "At least to me it is. And I don't want to belong to any one place. At least not yet."

I looked at him as he walked on in front of me. Trying to figure him out was harder than I had thought, but I liked the way he seemed to think; like he made his own rules in life, whereas I, had preferred to obey the ones everyone else set for me. Maybe because I was such a coward, maybe because it was easier that way, I didn't know. Well, maybe that was about to change now, I thought and went on.

After few minutes, Alice's phone started ringing. She took it out of her pocket and checked the caller ID. "It's my mom. I should probably answer before she gets too worried," she sighed.

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Do you mind if I go to the car to talk?" Alice asked me. "You'll be all right with Edward? Don't get lost."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not five."

Alice grinned apologetically. "Oh right. Sometimes I forget."

"Don't worry. I'll take care of her," Edward promised.

"See you at the car," Alice called out and turned around as she answered the phone.

"We'll be there soon. See you."

Edward and I kept walking for a while before he stopped suddenly. "This looks like a good climbing tree," Edward said, nodding toward an old, thick tree, with lots of branches.

I took one look at his excited expression and shook my head. "Don't even think about it. We're not climbing trees."

"Why not?" he asked. "Are you afraid?"

"You wish," I said.

"Then come on," Edward said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the tree. I sensed that it was useless to try to object.

So, we climbed up the tree. I thought I was pretty good at climbing trees, but I hadn't done it in a while so my skills were kind of rusty.

"Great view," Edward said, when we were probably almost ten feet from the ground. "Are you scared yet?"

"As if," I said and started climbing again. Edward laughed softly and followed me. I climbed a few branches higher, but just as I was about to sit down, my foot slipped and I almost fell. I probably would have, but Edward was quicker. He grabbed my waist and wrapped his arms tightly around me.

"Easy," He said. "I wouldn't want to explain your death to Alice. I think she would be pissed."

His hands were still around me, probably because he wasn't sure if I had regained my balance. Suddenly, I was oddly aware of how tightly his arms were wrapped around me, how close his body was to mine. It was weird how hot it made me feel all over. For a while, his arms lingered around me, and then, he let go. I was mad at myself for feeling a bit disappointed, like I would have wanted him to continue holding me. I turned around carefully and was a bit taken aback by how close his face was to mine. He was quiet now, his eyes looking at me with a more serious look.

For a while, I had this stupid thought. For a while, it looked as if he was going to kiss me. But then, I turned my face away feeling silly. Why would he do that?

"We should probably get down before Alice gets worried," I said quietly.

"Yeah, or before you manage to get yourself killed," Edward answered in his usual, playful tone. Then the moment was over as we both climbed down from the tree.

**xxx**

"What does that sign say?" I asked.

"Welcome to Gresham," Alice read, squinting her eyes to see the text on the sign.

"Where the fuck is that?" Edward asked from the backseat.

"No idea," I said. "Hah, I told you we were lost, remember?"

Alice spread out the map again and searched for Gresham. "Well, yeah," she said then. "Looks like we took the wrong turn after all."

"I told you," I repeated.

Alice rolled her eyes. "I know."

"Well, Gresham sounds more interesting than Portland anyway," Edward said positively.

We drove to the center of the city, which didn't seem to be really big.

"I'd say we go find some kind of motel, throw our stuff there and go walking around. I don't know about you, but I'm sick of driving anyway," Alice said.

Edward and I agreed, so we drove around a bit until we saw a motel sign and parked in the small parking lot.

"This looks good enough," Alice said.

Really, it didn't look that good, but at least it looked cheap. After fifteen minutes, we were in our room. It had a double-bed, a couch, table, two chairs and the usual few awful paintings. It was quite shabby and small, but it was good enough for us. And at least Alice and I were happy to finally have the chance to take a shower and change clothes.

I took a quick shower after Alice – washed my hair in a rush because the hot water was already running out, pulled on a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt and went back to the bedroom where Alice and Edward waited.

"The shower's free," I said to Edward. "But the hot water's running out."

"Great," Edward muttered and stepped into the bathroom. I sat on the bed to dry my hair as he closed the door.

"So what do you think about him?" Alice asked, lying on the bed beside me. Her hair was so short that it was already almost dry.

"Sorry about inviting him with us without first asking you, by the way," I said.

"It's okay, it was my fault for picking him up in the first place," she pointed out.

"Yeah. I think he's nice," I answered her question.

"He's interesting to say the least," Alice said. "More you're type, though."

"Not like that, Alice!" I exclaimed, even though I couldn't help recalling the moment up in the tree when he'd had his arms around me. It was probably nothing, though, maybe it was just because we were so high up in the tree and I was still startled having just almost fallen. It was nothing.

"What are you thinking about?" Alice asked, and only then did I realized that I had fallen into my own thoughts.

"Nothing, really," I replied.

"Except Edward," she teased.

"Oh, come on!"

"What come on?" Edward asked from the bathroom doorway.

"Nothing," I said and jumped up from the bed. "You were fast."

Edward shrugged. "Let's go then, I'm starving."

We found a pretty nice looking diner downtown. After eating a really late lunch or early dinner, we just walked around the city, looking around as the sun started to set. Gresham seemed to be a beautiful town, not really big, but not that small either. After we got fed up with walking around, we found a small park and sat down on the damp grass.

"God, I'm tired," Alice complained and lay down on the grass. "And my feet hurt."

"The downside of being a full-time tourist," I said.

"Hey, I know just what we need," Edward said and reached into his pocket. He took out a joint and held it out.

"Nice," Alice said, cheering up immediately. "Where did you get that?"

"I take it that's something a bit stronger than a cigarette," I said, looking at the joint suspiciously as Edward lit it with a lighter he'd also pulled from his pocket.

"Oh come on, Bella," Alice said, taking the joint from Edward. "As if you hadn't ever..."

That was true, I'd had my own experiments with weed, but I never really got into that stuff. Alice liked it more, though. However, I took the joint Alice offered to me, inhaling deeply, before passing it on to Edward.

We smoked the joint slowly, and after it ended, there was another one. Due to my pretty long break in these things, it didn't take very long until I started feeling a little fuzzy. Apparently, so did Alice, because she started to giggle at absolutely anything much like she always did when she was drunk or high.

"Look at that bird." She laughed like crazy. "Do you see the way it flies?"

That was basically the way it went on and on. I tried to listen to her, but couldn't really concentrate.

"I feel like dancing," I muttered and jumped up. That was quite weird since I never usually felt like dancing. Well, now I did. I grabbed Alice's hand and dragged her up with me.

"Let's dance," I said. Alice found something awfully funny in that and broke into laughter. I pulled her hand and started spinning around.

"Do you call that dancing?" Edward called out.

"Yes!" I yelled and spun around faster and faster so that my vision got blurry. I felt like I could pass out at any moment. I didn't care; I felt alive, brave and strong. Alice spun next to me until we bumped into each other and fell on the ground.

I yelped as I hit my head on the ground and then started laughing. It was a bit funny; everything about this situation was funny.

"Ouch," Alice said next to me and stumbled up. I felt like I needed to stay on the ground for a while longer.

"Take it easy," Edward said and his voice seemed to come in a distance. He took hold of Alice, who was apparently going to fall on the ground again.

"Edward," I mumbled, still lying on the ground.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the weed," I chuckled.

Edward laughed too and sat down on the grass beside me. I tried to focus my eyes on him. His expression was a bit unfocused and his pupils were big, but he didn't seem to act as idiotically as I.

"Bella, I need to pee," Alice said, still somehow standing.

I looked up at her. "Do you want me to come with you?"

She shook her head. "No, I'll be back in a second."

I realized that maybe I should have gone with her, but I felt like I couldn't get up just yet. "Don't get lost," I muttered.

"Nope." She rolled her eyes and walked away.

After a while, I sat up again with a deep sigh.

"Are you all right?" Edward asked. He sounded genuinely worried.

"Of course, I am. I'm more than all right – I'm great. I'm wonderful," I stated.

"Good," Edward said. He smiled his sweet, crooked smile at me, and it made me feel just a bit more dizzy.

"You're nice," I told him in a dreamlike voice, "but funny. You're funny and nice."

"Thanks." He smirked. "If that was a compliment."

"I think it was a compliment," I said. Even I was kind of confused about what I meant.

"Well, you're nice, too," he told me, "and funny."

"Cool," I said.

Then, we didn't say anything at all. All of a sudden, I realized how close Edward's face was to mine, how close his body was.

Edward grinned a little. Then, he leaned forward a bit, and just like that, he kissed me. Instinctively, I kissed him back. He tasted like weed and something else, something sweet. And his lips were soft and hot pressing against mine and I didn't want to stop and –

I pulled away from him, looking at his lips, his face and his blurry eyes.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to," he answered simply.

"But you can't… you can't just –" I didn't seem to be able to finish the sentence.

"Yes I can," Edward said.


	6. In the streets we're running

6 – In the streets we're running

The one good thing about weed was that you didn't get hungover. But that was about it. Even though it was quite late when we finally found our way back to the motel and gone to bed, we all woke up reasonably early the next morning.

Edward ran out to get some bagels and coffee while Alice and I brushed our teeth and pulled our clothes on. We didn't speak much. I didn't mention the kiss. It was weird not telling about it to Alice, but somehow I didn't want to yet. I hadn't talked about it with Edward. I hadn't talked about much anything with Edward after that.

I didn't know what to think about it. It was probably nothing, though. That was probably what Edward thought about it, anyway. Just a kiss. The only problem was that every time I thought about it, I wanted to do it again. I wanted to kiss him again so bad. It didn't make any sense.

Edward came back with three mugs of coffee and a bag of bagels, and we ate on the bed, getting crumbs all over it.

"What do we do next?" Alice asked after we had eaten.

"I don't know," I replied and reached out to grab Alice's bag and pull out the map. I spread it out in front of us.

"Any suggestions?" I asked.

"I don't care," Edward announced. "As long as it's something interesting."

"Hey, I have an idea," Alice exclaimed. "We could go to Salt Lake City and visit Rosalie. Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Yeah, we could do that," I agreed. Rosalie was Alice's cousin; she was twenty-two, had her own apartment and was so much cooler than Alice or I that we liked hanging with her. She never seemed to run out of men, booze or exciting things to do.

I turned to look at Edward, who was waiting to be told who the heck this Rosalie was.

"She's my cousin," Alice told him. "You'll like her."

"Yeah, you will," I said. At least I had a hunch that Edward would like her lifestyle.

"Let's get going then," Edward said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yay! I'll go call her right now," Alice yelled and jumped up from the bed to find her cell phone.

We drove almost the whole day. We took turns. Edward drove first, then it was my turn, and after that Alice. We only stopped couple of times to get more gas, eat lunch or take a few quick walks. We listened to our road trip CD over and over again, until Edward complained that it was time to listen some real music and turned on the radio. Alice and I sang along to the songs we knew, and Edward bought beer from a gas station when he thought Alice and I wouldn't notice. Alice talked with her mom awhile, and I turned my phone off when my mom tried to call me. One of us cracked a joke or a funny remark about something every time we started to get tired or irritated with the driving, making all of us laugh.

All in all we had pretty fun day. At least more fun than I thought just driving down the highway would be, and when the sun was already started to set, we were in Twin Falls.

"I say we stay the night here and drive in Salt Lake City tomorrow," Alice suggested, rubbing her eyes, tired from the driving.

"We just need to find a place sleep," I said.

"And some food, I'm starving," Edward added.

"Again," I sighed, grinning. "Where do guys get such big appetites?"

"Being this awesome all day long requires lots of energy," Edward remarked and climbed out of the car after Alice parked it on the side of the road.

"Okay, I'll go grab something to eat, and you two try to find us a motel to stay in?" I suggested.

"See you back at the car," Alice said. "Don't go too far, or you'll get lost."

I rolled my eyes and walked away, taking a better look at Twin Falls and trying to find a supermarket or something. I walked towards the city center, or at least I thought I was walking towards the city center. I knew that like Alice had pointed out, I was pretty talented at getting lost, but if I just made sure that I remembered the way back to the car and didn't get very far, I would be okay.

I turned on to another street at the corner but realized that it seemed to be narrower than the one I had just come from. I had a bad feeling about this, like I was going in the entirely wrong direction. It started to feel like a really stupid idea – wandering around by myself in a strange town. I had only suggested it because I wanted to be alone for a moment, to think about everything… to think about the kiss.

But now I was just alone in a strange town, on a deserted alley and it was already getting dark. I walked along the street, deciding that I'd turn around if the next street looked as small and desolated. I was just turning around another corner, when a group of guys walked past me. They seemed to be few years older than me, all more or less drunk. One of them whistled at me. I considered giving him the finger, but they didn't seem like guys I wanted to irritate, so I just walked past them.

"Hey, why don't you come join us, sweetie," another one of them shouted. "We've got beer."

"I don't think so," I mumbled and kept on walking.

"What did you say?" One of them grabbed my arm and made me gasp. I wasn't exactly scared yet, but I did want out of this situation as fast as I could.

"I said I don't think so," I said in a firm voice. I jerked my arm away from him and kept walking. I turned on to another street but then stopped.

"Fuck," I whispered to myself. The street went on about ten yards and then ended at a concrete wall. I weighed my options; I could wait here for a while, until the guys would have left or I could just walk past them, ignoring them. I thought for a minute, then turned around thinking that they wouldn't probably actually do anything. They were just a couple of drunk guys with big mouths.

Well I guess I was wrong, because when I turned around, all five of them were standing in front of me, blocking my way.

"Not so fast, baby," one of them grinned and took a step closer to me. The others followed his example and stepped closer to me, so close that I could smell the alcohol on his breath. My heart was pounding fast in my chest, my palms getting all sweaty, as I tried to figure out how to get out of here.

"Let me go," I ordered as firmly as I could. That, however, made them just laugh mockingly. One of them stepped closer, grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him.

I pushed him away from me as hard as I could. "Get the fuck away from me!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

My chances of running away weren't really high, so I decided I would just have to scream as loud as I could and put up as much of a fight as I could.

I tried to concentrate and tried my best not to panic as they all burst into laughter.

"I don't think so, sweetie," The guy chuckled and smiled at me, at the same time he opened his leather jacket, and I could see what was hanging from his belt – a knife. "Yeah," he said, as he saw what I was looking at. "So you better be really nice and quiet, darling. You wouldn't want to get hurt, would you?" he asked, stretching the words mockingly.

Fuck.

I guess this was the time to start panicking.

"I don't have much money," I said in a weak voice as he pulled me closer to him again. "But you can have that."

They all started laughing again, confirming my feeling that it wasn't just money they were after.

"I don't think we'll be satisfied that easily," said the guy who was holding me and gave me an appraising look. I started to feel nauseated.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Someone shouted from behind their tight ring, making all of them startle and look away from me. I jerked my arm away from the guy and didn't even realize it was Edward talking before I saw him. His face was full of rage and shock. He glanced at me quickly to see if I was okay. I tried to communicate to him with my eyes not to do anything stupid, that at least one of them had a knife. "Get away from her," Edward said, taking a step closer.

For a moment, no one moved. No one broke the tension. Then Edward took one step closer and punched one of them in the face.

So, apparently he hadn't gotten the message.

Edward grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away, but we weren't fast enough. Another one punched Edward in the eye so hard that he fell down. The guy with the knife, I noticed.

I didn't even fully realize what I was doing, but I kicked him on the crotch as fast as I could and then punched him in the eye, or at least tried. After that, all of them were on us.

Edward punched one of them, shoved another one out of the way, so that he bumped into a third one and then we were running.

Edward was faster than me; he pulled me by the arm so hard that it hurt, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I could hear their footsteps behind us.

We ran and we ran and we ran. It seemed like we ran forever.

Finally, we found our way back to the city center and Edward pulled me into a supermarket. We only stopped running when we were in the middle of the market. We both leaned against a shelf, catching our breath.

"Holy shit!" Edward was the first to speak. I wasn't sure if I could talk just yet, but I couldn't have agreed more.

"Are you all right?" Edward asked, grabbing me by the shoulders gently and observing me carefully, looking concerned. "Fuck, you scared me, Bella."

"I'm fine," I said, still breathless. I couldn't think clearly; my heart was still pounding like crazy, my veins full of adrenaline. I touched Edward's nose which was still bleeding, and he winced.

"Sorry," I mumbled. "Does it hurt?"

"I'm all right," Edward said, still not looking away from my face. His eyes were dark, intense. "Fuck that was crazy."

I looked him in the eye, and he looked back at me. Both still a bit breathless, both still scared. And for a second everything was absolutely still, like the whole world had stopped moving. I didn't know if I had first pulled him close or if it was him, but all I knew was that suddenly I was in his arms, his mouth on mine, hot and hard and demanding, not at all as sweet as yesterday. His arms were around me, his hands holding my waist so hard that it almost hurt, but in a good way.

His lips tasted like blood and him and desire. I opened my mouth, felt his tongue on mine, wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me… so close.

I didn't want to think. I didn't want to ever think about anything, I just wanted to feel… I wanted to feel him.

His hands moved down my back and hips, and his tongue moved in my mouth, hot and demanding. And it felt so good –

"Erm, excuse me." I think it took us a while to notice that someone was talking to us. We both stared, puzzled at the man, Edward still keeping his arm around me. "I have to ask you to either stop that or leave our store. Apparently you are disturbing some of our customers, and anyway that is not appropriate behavior in a supermarket."

Oh. I realized he worked here. I felt my face turning red and turned to glance at an old lady, who shook her head disapprovingly and gave us a grim look before walking away.

"I'm really sorry," Edward said, and I could see that he was trying very hard to suppress laughter. "We won't be doing that anymore."

"Thank you." The man nodded.

"We'll just go, um, finish our shopping now," I muttered, grabbed Edward's hand and dragged him away.

It looked like Edward couldn't stop himself anymore and burst out laughing while we were walking away. Once he started, I couldn't help myself anymore and started laughing hysterically too. All I could do was hope the guy wouldn't follow us and throw us out.

We stopped walking once we were far enough away and tried to stop laughing.

"That was, quite…" I started, unable to finish the sentence.

"Yeah," Edward just said. Once he'd stopped laughing, I couldn't look at him anymore. I let go of his hand that I realized I was still holding and felt myself blushing.

I didn't know what to think. A part of me – a big part of me – wanted to just throw myself at him and continue at where we left off. But I shouldn't feel like that. This was the wrong place and the wrong time. It was all wrong. And I had just almost been raped, or who knows what.

But all I could think about was how his lips had felt on mine, and how I could still almost taste him in my mouth.

I tried to concentrate. "How did you find me?" I asked the first question that came into my mind.

"After you had left, I asked Alice if she could manage a moment alone. I said I needed to talk to you," Edward started to explain. "Which was true, I wanted to talk to you. So I followed you. And then I heard you shout, and I followed your voice. That was seriously awful Bella. I didn't know what had happened, and I didn't even know where you were. I just kept waiting for you to shout again."

"That guy had a knife," I told him.

"Wow," Edward said quietly.

"But it's all right now," I said. "We're all right."

"Yeah."

"And you were such a bad ass; I didn't know you could fight like that." I shook my head, grinning at him.

"You were pretty awesome too." Edward smiled. "I'm sure they're going to have couple of bruises tomorrow."

We were both quiet for a while. My heart was still pounding fast, but this time I didn't know if it was the running or the kiss. "We better do some shopping and get back to the car before Alice gets worried," I said. I knew that we would have to probably talk about this all sooner or later, but that time wasn't now.

Back at the car, we told Alice a slightly edited version of what had happened. I tried to tell her that it wasn't a big deal – that we had the situation under control, so that she wouldn't get too worried. I also left out the kissing part.

"Shit," Alice said, still looking all pale and freaked out. "I shouldn't have let you go alone."

"It's all right," I assured her, still wondering how I could be so calm. It was probably because I was trying not to freak Alice out. Or maybe I hadn't even fully realized what could have happened if Edward hadn't come…

But there was no point thinking about that now; it had all ended well after all.

"I found a nice looking bed & breakfast near here," Alice told us after she'd calmed down a bit.

So we all hopped into the car, and Alice drove us there. When we got to our room, I was already starving. Edward and I had bought us chips, coke, chocolate chip cookies and some fruit, and because no one felt like going out anymore, they had to do.

We sat on the floor, stuffing the food in our mouths as fast as we could, and for a while everyone was too busy eating to talk about anything. Then we watched the tiny TV in our room for a while.

After we'd eaten, I started to feel normal again, but it only meant that I had time to think about what had happened between Edward and I. It was so weird, how differently I suddenly felt around him. And when we'd kissed… I'd kissed my fair share of guys, but I doubted that I'd ever kissed anyone that intensely. I didn't know, maybe it was the shock and adrenaline, or maybe it was something different, but even thinking about it made me feel a bit dizzy.

Later, when Edward was taking a shower and Alice and I were alone for a moment, she gave me an examining look.

"What?" I asked.

"What's going on between you and Edward?" Alice questioned.

"What do you mean?" I asked, playing innocent.

Alice laughed and sat down on the bed. "Don't try to act like it's nothing. I don't know what's going on. It's just so weird, like you have this _connection_ or something."

I sighed and sat down on the bed next to Alice. I thought she was exaggerating, but I might as well tell her now. "We kissed," I revealed.

"Oooh," Alice sighed and grabbed my arm all excited. "So you like him! I knew it! I said he was just your type."

"Don't get too excited," I warned her. "I don't know what it was. Maybe it was just the shock, all that adrenaline, you know?"

"Well, how do you feel about him?" Alice asked.

"I don't know." I frowned. "I haven't figured that out yet."

"Okay, well maybe you should," Alice said.

I breathed in deeply and laid down on the bed, feeling exhausted. Well, it had certainly been a long day. "I know. But it's probably nothing," I said. "I mean, I don't know if it's wise to have anything between us. It would make things too complicated and messy."

Alice snorted. "Who cares about complicated if you like him!"

"I don't know if I like him like that," I tried to explain. Sure, I thought he was nice. Sure, I had felt the urge to kiss him ever since we'd kissed at the supermarket. But it didn't necessarily mean I _liked_ him. "I don't even know if he likes me."

"Bella, he kissed you," Alice pointed out. "What else could it mean?"

"That he wasn't thinking clearly?" I suggested.

"Whatever, I can feel it," Alice said. "I can almost see it. There's something more between you two."

"You're imagining things," I told her.

"I don't think so," Alice said, clearly excited about this. "Think about it. You need to figure out what you want."

"What's the point when I don't even know what he wants?"

"You're so wrong, Bella." Alice laid down beside me on the bed and smiled knowingly. "And besides, he wants you. I can tell by the way he looks at you."


	7. And so I went and let you blow my mind

**A/N: So, I know it's taken me ages to update but here's finally the next chapter!  
>I've had an awful writer's block and there's quite a lot of stuff going on in my life that I have to figure out, so I just basically haven't got any writing done lately : I'm certainly not giving up on this, though and I will keep updating, even though it might take a while. Hope you bear with me :)  
>Enjoy!<strong>

7 – And so I went and let you blow my mind

We were all up pretty early the next morning. Maybe it was because it was so hot in our room, or maybe it was just because of everything that had happened last night, but I slept really restlessly. Finally I woke up all sweaty and anxious even though I couldn't even remember what I had dreamt of.

After breakfast, we were back on the road again. Rosalie, who Alice had called yesterday, seemed to be excited about us coming. By some silent agreement, we didn't talk about what had happened yesterday. It wasn't so much that we couldn't talk about it, we just didn't want to. I thought all of us wanted to put that behind us and return to the careless, easygoing holiday feeling or whatever.

And now I wasn't talking about the kissing part.

_That_ I hadn't figured out yet. I kind of wanted to just forget about the whole thing and pretend it didn't happen, because it was easier. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't deny that there was a part of me that wanted to do it again. A big part of me, actually.

I knew I would have to talk to Edward about it sooner or later.

It was early afternoon when we arrived to Salt Lake City. It was a different thing to find our way to Rosalie's apartment – Alice had never driven there on her own because Rosalie had always picked her up before – so we drove around for over half an hour. Luckily, it turned out that Edward was better with maps than either of us.

"That's it," Alice said excitedly as she turned from yet another corner that Edward had pointed out. There was a group of big apartment buildings in front of us. We parked the car and Alice led us to one of the buildings.

Rosalie's flat was on the seventh floor. Alice rung the doorbell and it took so long for Rosalie to open the door that for a while, I thought she wasn't home. But then she opened the door and Alice and Rosalie both let out excited cries and hugged each other tightly. After letting go of Alice, Rosalie gave me a hug, too.

"Come in," Rosalie said, letting us all in and giving Edward an approving smile. She was wearing leggings and a light blue men's blouse that was about four sizes too big for her. Her hair was in a messy knot in the back of her head, she wore no makeup, but managed to look absolutely gorgeous. Rosalie was one of those people who seemed to have a perfect life. She always looked amazing and her life never seemed boring.

"Sorry, I just woke up a while ago," Rosalie said, wandering to her little kitchen and we followed behind her. "Had a rough night yesterday, you know? I was about to eat something, but realized I had absolutely nothing in my fridge and I hadn't even noticed, well, whatever. How was your drive?"

"Great," Alice said, sitting down on one of the kitchen doors. "Apart from few little things that always happen on road trips, but nothing too interesting."

Alice gave me a small grin and I tried not to snort at her. Since when had almost being raped and then mindlessly kissing someone you barely knew because you were so shocked considered normal things on road trips?

On second thought, I wouldn't know, this was my first. Road trip, I meant.

"Awesome," Rosalie said, as she took a milk carton out of the fridge, checked the expiration date, and then threw it away. "So, anything special you want to do in the mighty Salt Lake City?" Rosalie asked, turning to look at the three of us again.

I shrugged. "We haven't planned much yet," I told her.

"Yeah, we haven't actually planned at all," Alice added.

"Planning is for boring people," Rosalie countered.

"Yeah, that's what I've been saying," Edward agreed.

"Okay, so let's get out then!" Rosalie said excitedly, looking out of the window. "It's a beautiful day. Oh, and by the way, tonight I'm having a party. It's kind of for you guys; you can get to know all my friends and stuff."

"You're throwing a party for us?" Alice sounded impressed. "Sweet."

"Well yeah, it's not that often my favorite cousin and her best friend and their random hitchhiker friend pay me a surprise visit," Rosalie grinned.

Alice and I gave Rosalie an apologizing grins. It was true that in our senior year we hadn't had that much time to keep in contact with Rosalie; a few years back we used to be pretty good friends.

"Okay let's get going then," Rosalie said. "Oh, wait, I need to change. Wait here just a sec!" Rosalie yelped while she was already running out of the kitchen.

"So what do you think?" Alice asked from Edward.

"She's interesting." Edward grinned.

After ten minutes, Rosalie appeared at the kitchen door again wearing a red dress, her blonde hair open and no makeup except bright red lipstick. I noticed that Edward looked at her a bit longer than would have been necessary in my opinion. I was surprised to notice how much it bothered me.

"What are you waiting for, let's go!" Rosalie shouted and we all went for the door, Alice and I grabbing our bags. When we were walking out of the door Edward caught my eye and gave me a small smile. I couldn't quite read it, but it still made my heart skip a beat. I knew I should have talked to Edward. I knew we should have figured out this thing and the kiss and everything.

Salt Lake City looked beautiful. We walked around the center area, Rosalie leading the way and showing us around her favorite shops, parks, and tiny, bohemian looking cafes. In the afternoon, we hopped into the car and drove to a nearby beach that Rosalie said was the best in the area.

It was full of families with small children and groups of teenagers. We bought some ice cream and sat down on the hot sand.

"So, why exactly did you decide to go on a road trip?" Rosalie asked.

"We didn't have anything better to do." Alice shrugged. "And we thought that because we were not going to do anything useful anyway, we might as well do something fun instead."

"Cool." Rosalie nodded approvingly. "That's my ideology exactly. Maybe that's why my parent's aren't talking to me, though. Anyway," Rosalie turned to look at Edward, "how about you?"

I noticed that Edward looked a bit mesmerized, smiling back at her. Well, I couldn't blame him; Rosalie's smile was incredible. "Something like that, too," Edward answered. "I just kind of decided that life was starting to get too boring."

"And this is more interesting?" I didn't know if I was imagining it or not, but I thought Rosalie's smile looked more flirtatious this time.

"Definitely," Edward said. "So, anyway, are we going to go swim or what?"

"That's a great idea." Rosalie jumped up excitedly. "Let's go swimming!"

"We didn't bring our swim suits with us," Alice noted.

Edward grinned and got up after Rosalie. "Swim suits are for losers."

"Come on," Rosalie insisted. "After that, we can go straight back to my place to change."

Edward grabbed my hand and pulled me up. I tried not to pay attention to how his hand felt on mine. "Oh no, Edward," I shook my head. "I am not go-"

"Oh yeah?" Edward interrupted me. I didn't like his mischievous expression at all. "Wanna bet?"

"Whatever you have in mind you just better forget – "

I didn't have time to finish the sentence because Edward grabbed me by the waist and pulled me up. I tried to resist him, but he was simply too strong.

"Edward, fucking let go of me," I screamed, as he carried me towards the water. Rosalie ran after us, pulling a reluctant Alice by the hand.

"Or what?" Edward laughed, throwing me into the water. I breathed in a lungful of the liquid instead of air.

"You bastard!" I screamed as I surfaced again. Edward just laughed and tried to tackle me under the water again, but I escaped out of his reach. Rosalie and Alice run into the water after us, screaming and spattering it to each other's faces. I turned to look at them and couldn't help grinning at Alice.

An hour later we stumbled inside Rosalie's flat, all soaking wet and still laughing.

"That was fun," Rosalie said cheerfully. "I need to change my clothes."

"Me too," Alice laughed and shook her head, spattering water on me.

"Hey!" I complained but Alice just grinned at me. I pulled her to the spare room with me to change our clothes.

"What do you think I should wear for Rosalie's party?" I asked, sitting on our twin bed in my underwear. Alice was standing beside the bed, drying her hair.

"Well, knowing Rosalie, her parties are usually pretty fancy, so, a dress," Alice said instantly.

"I didn't bring that many dresses with me," I pointed out.

"You've got the blue one," Alice noted.

"It's too short," I complained.

"Oh come on!" Alice turned to look at me. "I thought I'd put on the red one and it's like three times shorter than yours. Yours is almost too prude for nunnery, let alone to party."

"I'm surprised you know what the word means," I muttered to myself. However, Alice seemed to hear that, because she threw a pillow at me.

I put on the blue dress, just because I knew Alice wouldn't stop insisting until I did. I quickly tied my hair in a knot at the back of my hair and went to the living room where Rosalie and Edward already were.

Edward was laughing at something that Rosalie said but when I stepped into the room, he raised his eyes to look at me. For a while, I could see something like admiration in his eyes, like he thought I was beautiful. I looked back at him and our eyes met. Then he grinned at me quickly and looked away.

"Nice dress," Rosalie said.

"Thanks."

An hour later the party was beginning. Rosalie's place started filling with people that were approximately a few years older than Alice and I. Rosalie's kitchen table was full of different colored bottles and glasses and everyone made their own drinks. I'd always known that Rosalie was quite wealthy, but I'd never really figured out where she got all that money.

Rosalie introduced us to some of the guests, but I forgot their names right away. I was terrible with names.

I was leaning against the kitchen wall, holding my glass of something like a Cosmopolitan – it looked pretty similar, but the taste was kind of weird; I guess I needed some more training in making cocktails – wondering where Alice and Edward had disappeared to.

"Hey sweetheart," someone said. Only after a moment did I realize that the speaker was a tall man in his mid-twenties, and he was talking to me.

"Hi," I said as the man got closer, holding a glass of scotch in his hand. He was tall and muscular, and had his light brown hair tied in a ponytail in the back of his head. I guess he was good-looking, if you liked that dangerous-looking type.

"So you're one of the new kids," he said, glancing at me with an estimating look in his eyes. "I'm James."

I laughed at the way he said it. "Guess you could say that. I'm Bella."

"Always good to see new faces at these parties once in a while, Bella," James grinned.

I sipped from my drink and looked at him. "Yeah," I said, because I couldn't really think of anything else to say.

"Not sure about that drink, though," James said and gave me a flirtatious look. "You don't seem to be of a legal drinking age just yet; or am I wrong?"

"I'm not sure I really give a shit about the legal drinking age," I replied.

"That's my kind of girl," James said, taking a small step closer.

"Here we go. I let you out of my sight for one second, and there you are, always with some woman," someone said behind James. The voice belonged to a red-haired woman who was about the same age as James. She was tall, too, and looked like she could be a model.

"Ah, Victoria," James said. "Trust you to show up just when things are starting to get interesting."

Victoria rolled her eyes at James and turned to look at me. "I'm Victoria, James's sister." She smiled at me warmly and I smiled back at her.

"I'm Bella. Nice to meet you both, but I gotta find my friends now," I grinned at them. "Have to make sure they're not in any trouble. Which, knowing them, they probably are."

I smiled at them and walked away from the kitchen.

After a bit more searching, I found Alice and Edward from the balcony. Edward had a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other.

"Hi," I greeted.

"Where have you been?" Alice asked.

"Looking for you," I told her.

"Are you having fun?" Edward asked.

"Yeah, at least Rosalie has interesting friends," I said.

"That's right!" Alice agreed. "I'm gonna go meet some new people. And I need to get a new drink."

Alice walked back inside, and only then did I realized that Edward and I were alone on the balcony. And that was about the first time we'd been alone together since –

Edward turned to look at me, his expression hard to read.

"Edward," I said, thinking that I would have to get this over with at some point, "we should talk."

"Yeah? About what?"

I thought that it was a good thing I'd had a few drinks already, it made the words come easier. "About us. About the kiss."

"Okay, let's talk." Edward sat down on one of the chairs. I sat next to him, staring down from the balcony because I didn't want to look Edward in the eye.

We were both quiet for a while; Edward had finished his cigarette and was concentrating on his beer now. I gulped down the rest of my something-like-a-cosmopolitan and placed the glass on the small table.

"Why did you kiss me?" I asked.

"I thought I already answered that before." Edward grinned like there was something very amusing about the whole situation. "Because I wanted to."

"Right," I said and wished that I had another drink.

"Do you always think about everything?" Edward asked.

I shrugged. Somehow, he made that sound like a bad thing. "That's what people usually do."

"I don't," Edward disagreed. "I've found that thinking too much can only do you harm. Better to just live."

Feeling restless, I stood up and leaned against the wall. "And look where that has got you," I chuckled.

"I like where I am," Edward said and stepped beside me. "I'm just trying to figure out why you don't."

"Is this some kind of psychological crap?" I asked.

"If you want it to be."

"You're not making any sense today," I pointed out.

Edward laughed softly. "Says the girl I've been trying to figure out ever since we met."

I turned to look at him, my expression becoming more serious. I remembered when we first picked him up from the side of the road and there was this kind of mysterious glow around him.

I thought that I wanted to figure him out, know more about him.

I noticed that he'd stepped closer to me. Too close, because I could smell his scent, and it was distracting me.

"So did you?" I asked, trying to concentrate, even though I was getting all hot because of him being so close. I realized how bad I wanted to just stop talking and kiss him again. It was almost scary. "Figure me out, I mean?"

"Not even close," he said and there it was, his crooked grin, again. How come he was suddenly so hard to resist? "I'm gonna do it again."

"What?" I asked, even though I already knew. How could I not know?

Edward placed his hands carefully on my waist and I leaned closer to him, so close that I felt his breath on my face. And then his lips were on mine again. I felt it in my stomach, on my fingertips, my whole body. I leaned even closer, opened my mouth and instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck. It wasn't exactly like the whole surrounding world just disappeared, more like just for now none of it mattered. Like everyone else simply just existed in a different universe. Kissing him was so perfect, I thought, pressing my lips harder against his and opening my mouth a little. This was the third time, and it still took me off guard. I was sure I would never get used to kissing him.

And then he pulled away from me, tucked my hair behind my ear and smiled. I looked at him, puzzled, my lips still tingly and hot.

"And now we're going to go dancing," Edward said and grabbed my hand.

Inside, the living room had turned into a dance floor.

"I'm not drunk enough for this," I said as Edward pulled me in the middle of the floor.

"Oh yeah?" Edward taunted, grabbed my waist and then, we were dancing. It was probably the craziest dancing I'd ever done, at least close to it. We kept bumping into other people because we were spinning around so fast, but everyone seemed to either be having such a good time or being so drunk that they didn't care.

It was a good thing Edward was holding me tight and keeping me up, because I didn't feel very balanced.

"I need a drink," I said to Edward when the song changed into a slower one and pulled him aside.

"That was crazy."

"And fun," Edward added.

"Yeah," I admitted and walked towards the kitchen. On the couch, I could see Alice talking to James, only they were a little closer to each other than normal talking required; James' arm was around Alice's shoulder and their faces were so close to each other than if one of them leaned forward a bit, their noses would be touching. I caught Alice's eyes and rolled my eyes, but she just grinned and winked at me.

"Salt Lake City is quite fun, don't you think?" Edward whispered in my ear.

**A/N: I'd really, really appreciate some reviews...**


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